Apps

Stay up to date on the latest developments in the app industry, including news, updates, funding, mergers and acquisitions, and more.

Whizz Aims to Dominate the Subscription E-Bike Delivery Market in NYC

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But e-bike subscription startup Whizz sees it as an opportunity. The lack of disruption in the e-bike subscription arena could mean that Whizz is in a perfect position to get a first-mover advantage. Or it could mean that the e-bike subscription model is difficult to get right. Other consumer-facing micromobility subscriptions in NYC have come and gone, like Beyond’s e-scooter rental offering and charging infrastructure company Revel’s attempt at an e-bike subscription. His co-founders — Alex Mironov, Ksenia Proka, and Artem Serbovka — built and sold an e-bike subscription platform, Moy Device, to a private equity firm in Russia.

Utilizing AI: Taloflow streamlines software vendor selection for cost and time efficiency

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Every company, large or small, needs to choose software, and the bigger the company, the more complex the exercise. Some have internal tools and processes to help narrow down the list of possible vendors and eventually make a selection. “Taloflow replaces homegrown technology and software selection processes that can last weeks or months,” the startup’s CEO and co-founder, Louis-Victor Jadavji, told TechCrunch. “Unlike Gartner or G2, which offer mostly generic insights, Taloflow creates tailored reports for specific use cases,” he said. Taloflow has built large language models that sift through publicly available information and speed up the time and cost of generating the base reports.

U.S. House Approves Amended Measure to Prohibit TikTok or Compel Sale

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The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill this afternoon that would require TikTok-owner ByteDance to sell the popular social media app or see it banned in the United States. Efforts to ban TikTok go back to the Trump Administration, but the issue has been revived in recent months. The House already passed a similar bill in March — a bill that the Senate showed little interest in taking up. The Senate could take up the package this coming week, and President Joe Biden has said he supports the bill and will sign it. If that happens, TikTok is expected to challenge the bill in court.

Remove Stalkerware from Your Android Phone in Just a Few Simple Steps

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Your Android phone could have stalkerware — here’s how to remove it How to remove common consumer-grade spywareConsumer-grade spyware apps that covertly and continually monitor your private messages, photos, phone calls and real-time location are a growing problem for Android users. This guide can help you identify and remove common surveillance apps from your Android phone, including TheTruthSpy, KidsGuard and other apps. Checking to see if your Android device is compromised can be done quickly and easily. Android users who do not use accessibility apps or features should not see any apps in their Android settings. Force stopping and uninstalling a stalkerware app will likely alert the person who planted the stalkerware that the app no longer works.

China Orders Apple to Remove WhatsApp and Threads from App Store

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Apple has removed the Meta-owned end-to-end encrypted messaging app WhatsApp from its App Store in China following a government order citing national security concerns, the news agency Reuters reported Friday. Meta’s newer, Twitter-esque text-based social networking app, Threads, has also been pulled from the App Store for the same reason, it said. But the AppleCensorship site, which tracks App Store removals, records both Signal and Telegram as having been “disappeared” from Apple’s mainland China App Store. Last year another Twitter alternative, Jack Dorsey-backed Damus, was also pulled from Apple’s China App Store shortly after it had been approved. Although quite a number evidently managed to do so, as Threads quickly landed in the top 5 on Apple’s China App Store last summer.

“Cape Rakes in $61M from A16Z and Beyond for Privacy-Focused Mobile Service”

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That’s privacy by design.”The funding is notable in part because Cape appeal to users is not yet proven. The latest round is being co-led by A* and Andreessen Horowitz, with XYZ Ventures, ex/ante, Costanoa Ventures, Point72 Ventures, Forward Deployed VC, and Karman Ventures also participating. Those jobs may exposed him to users (government departments) who treated the security of personal information and privacy around data usage as essential. (Cape today also announced a partnership with USCellular — which itself provides a MNVO covering 12 cellular networks, and Doyle said that it’s talking with other telcos, too). Although payments for this might be anonymous, a user’s data is still routed through the network infrastructure of the underlying carrier, making a users movements and usage observable.

“Mastering Your iPhone: Playing Pokémon and Other Game Boy Classics”

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Apple finally updated its App Store guidelines to allow global developers to host retro game emulators on iOS. Now, at long last, Testut has released a Game Boy emulator directly into the iOS App Store, where it’s already climbed to #1 on the entertainment charts. Delta, the emulator, even supports DS, N64, SNES and NES games, in addition to Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance games. If you’re a Paladin-esque rule follower, you can use a tool like Epilogue’s GB Operator, which can rip .ROM files directly from the Game Boy games that you already own. So, now that you have legally obtained your .ROM file, how do you get it onto your phone?

Assist NASA in Retrieving Martian Rocks: A Call to Action

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NASA’s decision to scrap its $11 billion, 15-year mission to Mars to bring back samples could create a startup feeding frenzy, TechCrunch reports. Describing its plans as too slow, and too expensive, NASA is going back to the drawing board, with an eye on getting the space industry to help. But space startups are not worried about it. So, the NASA money might have a bunch of startup-sized buckets to drip into, and I am here for it. To that end, if any startup that works with NASA on the Mars rock mission needs a human to send up there to check on the dials and such, I’m your guy.

Acquisition Alert: VerSe from India Purchases Magzter, a Competitor to Apple News+

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VerSe Innovation, the parent firm of Indian news aggregator app Dailyhunt, has acquired the popular digital newsstand firm Magzter, the two said Thursday. The Bengaluru-headquartered startup has fully acquired Magzter, a New York-headquartered firm that counted Singapore Press Holdings among its backers. Magzter has amassed over 1 million paying subscribers in India and boasts a global active user base of 87 million, Bedi said. The firm, which offers an all-you-can-consume model with annual subscription fees ranging from $20 to $30, will find a distribution and technology partner in VerSe Innovation, he added. The Indian firm plans to launch Dailyhunt Premium this year that will include an ad-free experience as well as Magzter’s catalog.

“Exploring the Potential of AirChat: Will it Soar or Follow in Clubhouse’s Footsteps?”

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AirChat, the buzzy new social app, could be great – or, it could succumb to the same fate as ClubhouseOver the weekend, another social media platform exploded into the fray: AirChat. Built by AngelList founder Naval Ravikant and former Tinder exec Brian Norgard, Airchat takes a refreshingly intimate approach to social media. What I do consider a red flag is AirChat’s naive approach to content moderation. Clubhouse’s approach to content moderation was even more permissive, since there was no way to block people for months after launch – AirChat already has block and mute features, thankfully. With this minimalist approach to content moderation, it’s not hard to see how AirChat could get into hot water.